Tired of the confusion caused by summer, the residents of Zandvoort, in the Netherlands resorted to a digital trick to protect their neighborhood and the trick worked.
In a gesture of despair and creativity, the residents of Zandvoort, a coastal village in the Netherlands, decided to take control of traffic in their neighborhood. Fed up with congestion and lack of parking provoked by beach visitors joined to report on Google Maps that there were street works. The result? The application indicated that the street was inaccessible, automatically redirecting drivers to other areas.
The idea spread in a surge group of the neighborhood and was inspired by a similar action in Lisserbroek.
“If we report a lock once or twice, Google accepts and marks the road as closed.”
Five mobile phones were enough to make the same notification so that the system was deceived. The maneuver, although effective, did not please the Zandvoort traffic councilman, Gert-Jan Bluijs.
“It’s ingenious, but that’s not what the system serves. If everyone starts closing streets, Zandvoort plunges into chaos.”
In response, the municipality acted quickly. Physical signs were placed to guide visitors to the main parking parks, through the main roads, thus sparing the residential neighborhoods.
According to Mark Hofman, a publication in Bright technology, manipulating Google Maps is quite easy.
“Just open the application, report ongoing works and confirm. With the help of some friends, the system is temporarily fooled.”
However, Google himself corrects the error after a few minutes, when he realizes that the data does not correspond to reality.
It shows the different perspectives and cultural diversity in reports of more than 40 partner televisions of SIC. Saturday at 3:30 pm at SIC Notícias.
